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Coin

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Re: Coin

#331
post #313
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. Eurpean here. I was shocked to learn many USAian men keep their wallet in the back pocket. How do you sit on that?

I have a money clip, a smart phone and keys. Phone needs to be in a front pocket so that I don't sit on it and break it. Keys need to be in my front right pocket so that they are accessible and I do not sit on them and never sit again. Thus my billfold must go in one of my rear pockets.

For me, the money clip and keys are in the right pocket, and the smart phone goes in the left front pocket.

The keys and money clip are distinct enough that I have no problem pulling out the right thing. And the keys are not going to damage the money clip like they would damage the phone.

Re: Coin

#332
post #199
post #167

SUPER clever idea -- kudos for that. In theory, this is awesome. As a consumer, I love it. As a merchant, however (which I am), there is no chance I would accept this. None. Unless the issuers (that is, Visa, MC, Amex) drastically change their policies, which I don't see happening anytime soon. Why? Because the issuers are very clear about a few things: When push comes to shove and it REALLY gets down to it, unless t…

Many credit card companies are starting to issue new cards which are completely flat, making it impossible to make imprint. My new CapitalOne card is an example of this. Is your company planning on refusing to do business with them?

My girlfriend's family wanted to rent bikes at Blazing Saddles in SF and the cashiers there threw a big fit when they realized her card wasn't imprintable. They wouldn't photocopy it or write the number down, they just flat-out declined the business.

Re: Coin

#333

Can anyone elaborate how the magstripe trick works? That's the only thing that I can't find, and it's kind of the crucial point of the whole project.

A magstripe is literally just a flat strip of magnetic tape, like an audio cassette. Devices like Square Reader just encode the magstripe as audio into an iPhone's mic input. You could save that to a Voice Memo, stick the playhead from a RadioShack 3.5mm/cassette adapter in a reader, and press play. Can't find it, but I've seen a demonstration on YouTube of someone doing this to enter their apartment building. The TV…

But what this device is proposing to do is dynamically change the magnetic orientation of the ferrite on the strip. I don't see the Coin demo guy running his card through an encoder before presenting it at the cash register.

Best I can find so far is this website which kind of describes what is going on:

http://www.cardlab.com/Dynamic-Magnetic-Stripe.html

Re: Coin

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://creditcardforum.com/blog/chip-and-pin-credit-cards-us...

I have an AmEx but not Platinum. It's not worth the extra fees to me. If they get some sense and implement this on their lower-end charge cards, I'd be a pig in shit. I try to have this be the only card I use.

The chip is available on all of the Amex charge cards, green through platinum. Just ask customer service for it.

Re: Coin

#335

Can Mastercard or Visa prevent or try to prevent this? Also what about cards that are shown example Costco? I just wish my phone did all stuff related to money.

Mastercard and Visa might be able to embrace the technology - adopt it as a part of their cards and allow people to add on store cards and such. They might then be able to capture processing info from all the other cards present too.

The big card issuers then are warranting the card as a token and allowing others access to verify the token holder. Seems like the way forward to me.

Re: Coin

#337
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit card fraud is generally not a problem in the US for consumers or the credit card companies, the two groups that would be in a position to adopt a new credit card technology. The merchants accept all the liability in the US credit card system, and they're at the mercy of the credit card company's policies, and the consumer's desire to use their card of choice or go somewhere else. As a consumer, I avoid cash-on…

The merchants generally do have the liability for fraud, but ultimately this "cost of doing business" is reflected in higher prices to the consumer.

But the consumer doesn't notice.

Re: Coin

#338
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. I'd love to have one with a classy finish and that would block NFC signals from leaking. I ended up ditching all but essential cards and got down to five. One debit, credit, health insurance, license, and AAA.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. Eurpean here. I was shocked to learn many USAian men keep their wallet in the back pocket. How do you sit on that?

Many Americans do, indeed, keep bulging tri-fold wallets in their rear pockets. And they even drive their cars and sit at their desks with them.

Often you will spot them with a month's worth of paper receipts crammed inside so the poor wallet is about to burst.

It is just conventionally where a man's wallet goes in America--One of those things where you don't apply common sense because it's just "how it is" and you've never really thought about it.

Re: Coin

#339
post #271
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Coin is going to be wildly successful. I was looking at my wallet the other day, and wondering why i can't slim it down even further to carry one digital card instead of multiple. i even thought it would make a good startup. and here we are. the only drawback in my mind's eye regarding coin as a business is that there will be no reason to have "swipes" anymore if you can just scan a smartphone, as with the st…

But how many of the cards in your wallet could be replaced by Coin? For me it's maybe three. If it can't replace nearly all of them it seems pretty pointless to me - I'm still going to be carrying my wallet, it'll just have two fewer cards in it. Yay? In any case, it does seem odd to build a business around something that is virtually guaranteed to be extinct in a few years time.

What about bars? A lot of bars I go to hold onto your card until you tab out. I'd hate to keep getting notifications about losing my card every time I'm out on the town. When you go back up to the bar, they ask what your name is to tab out. I didn't see anything on the Coin to do that. I also wouldn't want the bartender to press the button and change to a business account or something similar.

I'm not being a hater, this is just an occurrence where this might not work well. I still think it's an awesome idea though, and I'd like to get one.

Re: Coin

#340
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. I'd love to have one with a classy finish and that would block NFC signals from leaking. I ended up ditching all but essential cards and got down to five. One debit, credit, health insurance, license, and AAA.

I think in your scenario, a good fit would be a cigarette case that you'd keep in your front pocket. Eurpean here. I was shocked to learn many USAian men keep their wallet in the back pocket. How do you sit on that?

I'm european, and hold my wallet in the back pocket or in my jacket. I just take it out and put it on the table when sitting.
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